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First Family’s Vacation Plans Take Shape Around Familiar Chilmark Farm

President Barack Obama and the First Family will rent the bucolic Blue Heron Farm off South Road in Chilmark for their vacation during the last week of August.

The 28.5-acre property some five hundred yards down Cobb’s Hill Road, spans the Chilmark and West Tisbury town line and overlooks Town Cove, the westernmost finger of the Tisbury Great Pond.

While the mechanics of renting the property were still ongoing at press time, the Gazette has learned that a rental agreement for the farm will comprise three leases, one to be held by the Obamas, another by the Secret Service and a third by a White House entourage.

The amount of the rental has not been disclosed, but up-Island properties similar to Blue Heron Farm rent for between $35,000 to $50,000 per week.

It is understood that the Obamas have treated the transaction as a standard Vineyard summer rental, from payment terms right down to questions about bringing the family dog.

A partner in Wallace and Company Sotheby’s International Realty confirmed yesterday that the Edgartown real estate company has leased Blue Heron Farm for a block of 60 days in August and September from owners William and Mollie Van Devender, and that the company will sublease the property.

But Tom Wallace said he could not comment further.

“Wallace and Company holds a lease on Blue Heron and is in the process of subleasing it. That I can confirm. But I cannot comment on who the tenants are,” Mr. Wallace said.

But sources have confirmed that it is in fact President Obama and his family who plan to take Blue Heron Farm for the last week of August.

Unconfirmed reports have it that First Lady Michelle Obama and children Sasha and Malia may decide to come to the Vineyard a bit earlier, possibly as houseguests of Vineyard friends, before the president joins them for a quiet family vacation and rest. There are four dwellings on Blue Heron Farm property, including a white Victorian farm house, a reconstructed Pennsylvania hay barn and a Vermont shed, the latter two of which date back to the 1800s and were transported and reconstructed by West Tisbury builder Rick Anderson in the early 1990s.

Named by its previous owners, the late New York real estate developer M. Anthony Fisher and his wife Anne, the farm has undergone several renovations in the last decade. Situated overlooking a remote finger of the Great Pond, it is quiet and private, with an apple orchard, flower and vegetable gardens, stone walls, a swimming pool, golf practice tee and small basketball court for the basketball-loving president.

It is understood that Mr. Obama and his family will also be offered access to the private portion of Squibnocket Beach if they so choose.

Mr. Obama will not be the first president to set foot on the property. The Fishers played host to President Clinton and his wife Hillary in the summer of 1998. The couple held a dinner party for the Clintons and more than a dozen other guests in the barn, which measures 76 by 42 feet, with a 26-by-26-foot ell.

The Fishers were both killed in a plane crash in April of 2003.

In 2005 the property was bought by William and Mollie Van Devender for $20.35 million in what was, at the time, the second highest price paid for a single residential property in Vineyard history.

Mr. Van Devender is a timber businessman and was one of three original investors in the Vineyard Golf Club, a private course built in 2000 off the West Tisbury Road in Edgartown.

The choice of Blue Heron Farm concludes a thorough investigation of Island rental properties which began in the spring. Senior White House aides and members of the Secret Service have examined and rejected more than 20 properties.

There was an early concentration of research in Oak Bluffs where the Obamas have stayed on several occasions and have longtime friends with Island connections. But security concerns, including the potential for traffic bottlenecks that would be created by presidential travel in the bustling town, put the properties out of contention.

Blue Heron Farm is a private residential compound with easy access to the airport and to Oak Bluffs via Barnes Road.

Situated as it is off South Road, the Summer White House will be close to the West Tisbury town center, including Alley’s General Store, the town library and the farmers’ market at the Grange Hall.

In a sign of the rapid evolution of technology there has been no request for advance communications party access on the property.

During the first presidential visit of Mr. Clinton in 1993, to an Oyster Watcha Midlands home owned by former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, members of the military communications division Signal Corps descended on the property for several days to wire the location for communication prior to the president’s arrival.

Obviously, "The TEA Party of NO" has, once again, decided to intentionally overwhelm this article with their sheepish comments of disparaging hate, per usual. They are not capable of engaging in any thoughtful consideration of any subject involving the President, but are merely sheep indoctrinated to blather the GOP party line on and on and on. Yawn.
In fact, the Obama family deserves this well earned summer vacation (if for no other reason than enduring the inane chatter of constant derision from such lost lemmings). Martha's Vineyard is a perfect location - particularly The Blue Heron Farm. Does anyone actually believe that the Obamas are being charged the usual rental prices? Please. It is an honor to host President Barack Obama and his family for their summer vacation on Martha's Vineyard - as most educated and coherent Americans can clearly comprehend. I do hope their time on the Vineyard is one of rest, relaxation, and peace. They certainly deserve it!

ah, how the hypocrites have come out of the woodwork. the obama family has millions of dollars at their disposal. did you honestly think they'd stay in a timeshare in kissimmee for vacation? further, the entourage that we the taxpayers pay for would have to follow them no matter where they went. at least, they're going to a home outfitted for a presidential visit -- it's not like they have family members who have multiple homes in maine, texas, and florida that we the taxpayer had to pay to get up to snuff.
also, should we not remember, we didn't only have to pay for secret service protection for bushie's endless brush-clearing expeditions, but we had to pay for secret service protection on the first daughters as they whirled through every nightclub in manhattan and every bar in austin.

I certainly hope that Michelle brings along her $5,000 purse. Surely she wouldn't be at Martha's Vineyard w/out it? Why is it that they advocate sharing the wealth, yet gave only 4% of their personal income to charity? I would certainly like to see this trip be "shared" with those who need that "hand up".

I don't begrudge the first couple a vacation, but wish they had chosen debt ridden California. My ex-inlaws (now deceased) had a summer home on MV which I visited. Personally, I didn't like the place -- too many snobbish people.

Those detractors wondering about who is paying the cost might consider the 879 days GW Bush spent in Crawford and the 487 days spent at Camp David alone. (I only wish that he has spent more time on vacation.) I would suspect that the Obama vacation travel expense and security expense is being funded the same way. Bush may have stayed at his own place, but the $35,000 lease is probably the least of the expenses.

I only got done reading through about 20 of the reader comments, but I feel that someone needs to chime in and respond to the "Bush got away with extravagant vacations!" comments. The Bush family OWNS their summer home in Kennebunkport, it's a family compound (you know, similar to that of the oft noted Kennedy Compound in Hyannis). The majority of his other vacations (which were more numerous than the majority of other Presidents took in the past several decades) were to his ranch in Crawford...which he already had owned before his presidency. To make the decision to summer on a 35k/week piece of property in this economy is not sending the best PR message, and I'm sure Gibbs is coming up with some wonderful spin on it as we speak. Mr. Obama, you're always welcome to take the kiddies to North Ave. Beach right back home in Chicago, you too can cut back like the rest of us are.

Before your cast aspersions, read the article carefully. The Obamas are paying for the rental. There are three rentals; the taxpayers are mostly likely paying for the Secret Service guys and the White House group. Don't bemoan the president and his family a vacation. Obama isn't the first president to take his family on a vacation or to stay at a lovely, family spot like the Vineyard. Two weeks off with your kids--why not. Think and act with more compassion.

Well.....my opinion is that this is just craziness. Why NOT go to Camp David.....it's already paid for? Why should the American people who CANNOT even afford a 2 day getaway pay for the Secret Service and Odumdum's staff to tag along??
And on a different note.....stop bringing up BUSH!!! People, he is no longer president. Doesn't matter what he did.....Odumdum said he represented "change". Then why are all of his supporters basing his decision making skills (or lack there of) on what Bush did. I feel like I am back in grade school standing on the playground watching a bunch of kids saying "she started it!" Please people, how will we ever move forward if you keep living in the past????
As for him being black......why is that when someone has an issue with what King Odumdum says or does you keep saying....."It's because he is a black president, if he was white there would be no problem"????? I promise you this: I DON'T CARE WHAT COLOR, WHAT SEX, WHAT NOTHING OUR PRESIDENT IS----AS LONG AS HE IS DOING WHAT IS RIGHT FOR AMERICAN'S!!! HIS ONLY JOB FOR THE NEXT 3 1/2 YEARS NEEDS TO BE TO UPHOLD OUR RIGHTS THROUGH THE CONSTITUTION!!! However, it appears that people are blinded by the "glitz and glamour" of having a black president! Hello, he's black! Great, now lets move on to getting the 9.5% unemployed back to work and fix this horrible defiict he managed to blow out of control in under 6 months!!!!!
WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!! HE'S DOING DAMAGE THAT WILL TAKE GENERATIONS TO REPAIR!!!! That's what upsets people! Not that he's black, not that he doesn't deserve a vacay...I'm sure it was exhausting to blow all that money!!!!

Can any of the readers who post here read? President Obama is paying for his family's vacation with his own money. When last I checked, that is not a crime. I wonder if some of these same commenters were concerned when Bush went on vacation in Kennebunkport or Crawford? By the way that the Bush's are so wealthy that they can afford their own retreat is not impressive from a PR standpoint. This just makes Obama seem more like the common man who has pulled himself up by his bootstraps instead of inheriting daddy's money.
In either case, the Secret Service protection is paid for by U.S. citizens, regardless of whether they stay at a rental property or on their own compound.
So grow up people and stop whining. And to the Obamas, I hope the family enjoys their stay at the Vineyard. Rest and be well.

What rock did these people crawl out from. Wanna express your anger? Join me and direct it towards the right person - the one who caused this mess. He's living in a $3M mansion in Texas. I find it incredible that you don't have a problem with that you moronic wingnuts! Oh, I forgot, Bush is white!

The President and the First Lady for your information have been paying for their own home makeover; not taking a dime of the allotted monies the government has provided to all the other presidents when they move in. They also pay for their children and mother-in-laws travel, food and hotel room. Unlike the other presidents and the Obama's pay for their own vacation accommodations also. If you could look beyond color in America this wouldn't be an issue nor would anything else The president does to the degree you take it. No one carried on about Bush's unprecedented time he took on vacations as oppossed to actually working. The trips to texas were paid by taxpayers too. His deficit well over 11 trillion wasn't raked over the coals and no other time in history has anyone worried about the elected president being an American until the First African-American president is elected. We are not Post racial in this country. Just some of the Klan members don't wear hats and call themselves Birthers and republicans.

Absolutely disgusting that we the taxpayers are subsidizing the 4 year vacation for ms obama and their kids and all the secret service protecting them! What NERVE to have taxpayers paying ofr those 3 and him and their secret service to flit around the world! he is the worse president this country has had the misfortune of having IMPEACH him already and let ms obama and her kids PAY FOR THEIR OWN vacations!!he's bankrupting this country stealing from medicare recipients by cutting their benefits but he and the misses and their kids freeload off Americans SHAMEFUL! Obama you and oyur family should be ashamed of yourselves, freeloaders!

I didn't hear all these complaints when the Bush administration blew 100s of Billions of dollars on the Iraq war! And for what??! The Obamas are paying for this themselves... isn't that still allowed in America?

None of the comments considers the cost of flying Air Force One, the secret service and all the other ancillary expense of this "summer vacation". My guess this week will cost US half million dollars! Add it to the bill our kids will become buried by.

You babies. After 8 years of President Cheney and his puppet Bush ruining our country, all you can do now is find fault with everything Obama does.
Let the guy enjoy himself for a week tilll he gets back to fixing the mess he inherited, passing health care reform (which he will), and getting his justice department to finally start jailing all the criminals of the last eight years, expecially former President Cheney and his puppet Bush.

If Obama is paying for the trip on his own dime, that should be publicized so that many suffering Americans won't feel animosity towards the president. It's bad enough we are being raped of our freedom, hard-earned dollars and dignity. IMPEACH or say goodbye to the America that was so great!!!

The Iraqi war costs § 267.000.000 a day. And to what good. Started by an grossly incompetent president. And now you're on Obamas back for a weeks vacation, where he obviously personally is paying his part of the bill.
Come on get some perspective on this

You Obama-haters need to check your facts. This is a private vacation to be paid by the Obamas. Security, of course, is paid by the taxpayers but that's irrelevant because they'd have security no matter how much the vacation cost. In fact, it's the same security they'd have at home so it's not costing us any extra money. Furthermore, the news reports that the Obamas are paying for the entire property, which includes housing for security.
Why the Obamas' private vacation plans are open to your criticism is beyond logic. Would the economy be any better if they only spent $100 for vaction at Disneyland? Or what if he stayed at home for vacation? The cost and location of Obama's vacation has no logical connection to the economy, politics, health care, or anything else that concerns you.
This is not a case of Nancy Reagan spending other people's money on a set of dishes. Seriously guys, think and research before you type.

You Obama haters really need to watch the news, and study recent history. First, those who use hyperbole like "Obama is the worst president ever" need only look at George W. Bush for refutation. No president has brought more shame upon the US, and no modern world leader has ever been more hated. I live near the UN, where we have hosted Arafat, Castro, Sadaam Hussein and other despots and terrorists. Yet who got the most protests? Bush. No modern leader, including Hitler, Nixon and Pol Pot, has been hated as much by the world AND HIS OWN PEOPLE.
Who can forget that Colin Powell had to cancel his visit to The Olympics because of fears of a protest? Indeed, our athletes were told not to wear any clothes with American identifiers.
If we were "defenders of freedom," and benefactors of the free world, why did the world hate us? And I'm talking about our traditional allies, including close neighbors Mexican (whose leader decided to have minor elective surgery rather than meet Bush) and Canada.
The worst hypocrisy is that Bush claimed to spread democracy yet he was asking world leaders to defy their citizens! Poll after poll showed that the world was against the war (I believe Israel, and sometimes Australia, were the only countries in favor). YET BUSH TOLD WORLD LEADERS TO IGNORE THEIR PEOPLE AND JOIN HIS ILLEGAL WAR! Ignoring citizens is Bush's idea of Democracy? Sounds more like a dictatorship to me.
Very telling of Bush's failure is the fact that more negative revelations and books have been written about him BY INSIDERS AND ASSOCIATES than any other president. These include Colin Powell, Richard Clarke AND NOW DICK CHENEY.
It is telling that a CNN International poll showed that over 80% of respondents considered Bush more of a threat to world peace than Saddam Hussein. Amazingly, this was BEFORE we knew that there were NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. In other words, even when the world thought that Saddam had WMDs, the vast majority of the world still thought that Bush was a bigger danger.
Finally, being a NYer, I remember the international sympathy and good will we got right after 9/11. Strangers approached me in the streets and cyberspace to express their condolences when they found out I was a NYer. Bush single-handedly changed all that into derision, making the US a pariah among the world's democracies. Search YouTube and you'll see how Americans living abroad felt proud to be Americans again after Obama won.
So before you Obama haaters exaggerate how bad Obama is, do a little research and consider the mess Bush made.

Critics of Obama spending $30k on this vacation need to study Economics 101. Those who say that he should set an example is correct -- but not in the way you think. Simply watch the news and you'd see that one of the best indicators of the economy is Consumer Spending. SPENDING IS GOOD because it gets money flowing, and that creates jobs and spurs investment. In fact, that's the whole point of Economic Stimulus: To get people to spend -- not for them to save. Even Republicans agree to that simple principle. Their approach is to do it through tax breaks but regardless, the goal is the same; increase spending so that money flows.
So yeah, Obama should set an example. And he is setting a good one by spending his own $30k on this personal vacation. C'mon, don't you Obama-bashers think before you type? Don't you watch the news? Sheesh.

WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS VACATION? WHO PAYS FOR THE PLANE TO GET THERE? WITH ALL THE SECURITY HE HAS WHY CAN'T HE FLY COMMERICICAL FLIGHTS AND PAY FOR THE TRIP LIKE EVERYBBODY ELSE. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM PAYING FOR HIS VACATIONS OUT OF HIS OWN POCKET. NOT THE TAXPAYERS

What a hypocrite this guy is. Obamas screams about CEOs going to vegas for a business convention or using private planes but its ok for him to go to a 50,000 a week MV mansion when HEALTHCARE is going down the tubes with his tonedeaf speeches. So sad. One term Obamy

LINDA IN BRISTOL on Sunday, August 23, 2009 3:16pm wrote:
"WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS VACATION?" WHO PAYS FOR THE PLANE TO GET THERE? ...I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM PAYING FOR HIS VACATIONS OUT OF HIS OWN POCKET. NOT THE TAXPAYERS"
God, don't you bother reading the news or doing a little research before you post? First of all, the person right before you, Ryan, already answered all your questions. Simply put:
The Obamas are paying for the vacation by themselves. Do you even watch the news? In fact, their $35k pay for the entire land, which includes housing for the security staff.
"WITH ALL THE SECURITY HE HAS WHY CAN'T HE FLY COMMERICICAL FLIGHTS AND PAY FOR THE TRIP LIKE EVERYBBODY ELSE. "
Do you know anything about Presidential security? Anything? Do you seriously think that he's allowed to fly commercially? Just as the President is not allowed to go out without a security team, he is also not allowed to do commercial travel, i.e. taxi. airline, subway, etc. The disruption to the airline is too great, and the risk to himself is too high. And repat: The Obamas are paying for this vacation themselves.
You don't like the rules? Well, ask congress to change them. And seriously, try reading the news online before posting somethingn pointless.

Paul in New Have wrote:
"What a hypocrite this guy is. Obamas screams about CEOs going to vegas for a business convention or using private planes"
WRONG. Obama was talking SPECIFICALLY about the CEOs of companies that relied on government bailout. He did not criticize any other CEOs and couldn't care less how they spend their money. Did you hear him say anything about Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? How about hotel CEOs? Or the owners of baseball teams?d How about TV and newspaper CEOs?
Using that logic, does the Presidency depend on government bailouts? Indeed, his salary is only $400,000 -- MUCH lower than the CEOs in question. And the President gets no year-end bonuses. Or million dollar severance packages. I can safely say that Obama can easily make more as a Harvard-educated attorney in a major city like Chicago.
As for the private jet, the President is mandated by protocol to use private transportation because traveling publicly would be disruptive and risky. Duh.
So what exactly was your point? Where was the "hypocrisy"???
"but its ok for him to go to a 50,000 a week MV mansion when HEALTHCARE is going down the tubes with his tonedeaf speeches. So sad. One term Obamy"
What's sad is your inability to form a cogent argument or fact check. So what exactly is the correlation between the PRIVATE cost of his vacation and health care policy. Think about this: If his vacation was only $500 at a Holiday Inn, would health care reform fare any better? Huh? THERE IS NO CORRELATION.
Your entire post lacked any sort of point. I'd recommend a freshman course in Critical Thinking.

Well it is a tough job. So, tough a vacation after 6 months? A, between 35 and 50 thousand dollar vacation? Not to mention the cost of security add it all up and Airforce One. In our current economical situation Mr. President, perhaps you should have pitched a tent in the rose garden? Every person I know would love to have these perks, many would love to have a job that gives you a week every 6 months and,let's go low, 30,000 dollars. Good gig! America's failing while you vaction Mr. President!

I would like to know how a "community org." and "hospital staffer" managed to swing so many "over the top" vacations. Even having been in law for a brief time they couldn't have possibly paid for all the collage etc. bought a big fancy home etc. on their own and afford this in such a brief working time. We already know where a great deal of the money has come from.
It would appear that flaunting it in the American public's face is just one more thing on the "agenda".
Rather like forcing the boy out of the private school to make room for their daughter to attend.
I wonder how that family and boy, truly feel about the Obama's!
You see - it's NOT the race issue.
It's about control. Being able to cease things they want. The child and school issue is a good start of proof - should one care to argue the point.